(this review will spoil which characters are in romantic relationships)

the writing is incredible. it made me cry several times. and the fact that all of our characters are women (most of them queer women at that) is just so joyous & refreshing.

and one of those women is a trans woman. a trans woman who is by her own admission "dumber than bricks." (gosh i wonder who i relate to in this story.) and who is well-written. heck, everyone in here is well-written. they're all imbued with so much personality. they're all very distinct, and very real-feeling. i love this big family of queer girls.

i think the thing about the writing that impresses me the most is how real all the emotions in this feel. it's really good at drawing you in, at making you feel what the characters feel, and feeling for them. it also tackles abuse in a way that made me feel incredibly seen.

it's not without flaws. the fact that maddie & abigail are afforded two sex scenes while tara & morgan are allowed none is a problem. a big, frustrating, unsurprising problem. the developers' excuse is that they're worried about people fetishizing tara or being transphobic, and just... hi. no. please get out of here with those excuses.

as if straight men haven't been fetishizing cis lesbians for basically as long as they've known there's such a thing. and i notice they don't let concerns about homophobia stop them from showing two cis women having sex.

ok, this is really what i want to know. why are you more interested in how cis people are going to react than how trans people are going to react? we play your games too. you're going to include a character that's "for" us but not afford her the same space to explore her romantic relationship as your other main characters? honestly, fuck off with that.

in spite of how angry i am about this, you'll notice i've still given the game five stars. i already talked about how incredible the writing (otherwise) is, and it made me cry like a bunch of times. and one of the reasons i'm so upset that tara didn't get her freak on is because the character means so much to me, and for me to hold that against the developers while not also giving them credit for creating a character that means so much to me feels patently unfair.

honestly, in spite of my one fairly substantial complaint, i hecking love this game. any game that makes me cry this much & is this gay is gonna catapult up near the top of my list of favorite games of all time, and this is no exception.

although i had an nes & have vague memories of playing mario & duck hunt for the first time, my parents bringing home a genesis & sonic the hedgehog is my first extremely clear video game memory. it was love at first sight for me. more than anything else, the sonic the hedgehog series is responsible for me being the gamer i am today.

and i didn't just stop at the games. i devoured the cartoons (tails gets tied up SO MUCH in adventures of sonic the hedgehog y'all, highkey formative for me tbh), the comic books, everything i could get my hands on.

i don't know how many times i beat this game, but i know plenty of those times were of the up/down/left/right /a+start variety, heh.

though this was surprassed pretty convincingly by its sequels, it still reminds me of when i fell in love with video games for the first time, and it still plays great. i love that dumb little blue speedster so much.

although i had this for saturn, this actually wasn't my first time playing the genesis version because i rented it once to see if it was different than the saturn version. i really liked it at the time because, well, i owned a saturn so you pretty much had to like this game since it was one of the like three games for saturn, heh. now... HECK is it ever rough. and it's not challenging because it's challenging, it's challenging because the controls & 3d perspective are kinda awful. there is still quite a bit of nostalgia factor here, and i do like the way the flickies follow you around when you free them, but that's kinda it.

i was pretty sure i had beaten this before but im no longer so sure of that? i know for sure i played multiplayer and didn't like it nearly as much as halo 2's. i think i played a bit of the singleplayer campaign but i don't think i must've gotten super far with it.

i mostly liked this one! i won't say it's the best halo i've played so far. i think that's still 2 even though the singleplayer maps were occasionally a bit more frustratingly repetitive than i remembered, but the multiplayer is just so sublime.

this is fun and a nice change of pace from either of its predecessors, though! the difficulty felt a bit higher. like, even with the somewhat quicker respawns we still wiped on split screen co-op more than we did with the previous games, and it was a nice challenge!

anyway, now we finished the fight! there for sure aren't a bunch more games for us to play still, right? right?

The second I heard the trademarked “SEEEEGAAAAA!” opening I knew I was home. I remember how excited I was when I got my Genesis. I distinctly remember what the box looked and felt like, and what the bulky Blockbuster VHS Rental-esque game boxes looked and felt and smelled like. This might sound weird, but shrug.

Sonic 1 has been the mainline Genesis Sonic game I’ve replayed the least (we’re still talking something on the order of at least once a year, though), and my main complaint about it has always been that it “feels lonely.” My hedgehog is all by himself, and that used to just feel... wrong to me. Honestly, though? Now that I’m taking my time and savoring the game I moreso get the feeling that just... he was always a fully-formed hero, and it makes so much sense that the second I saw him I knew I wanted to be like him. Knew that I would follow him anywhere, if he let me.

Sonic is effortlessly easy to root for, and I’m not just saying that because I’m in love with him. His innate goodness just leaps off the screen. I wrote about this regarding the Sonic movie, but the thing that really ties this entire multimedia franchise together, the beating heart at its core, is that Sonic is just... good. He’s heroic in a very believable, accessible way. What makes him a hero isn't just his superpowers, it's that he makes you want to be better, and makes that feel attainable, just by his example.

The stakes of this are incredibly straightforward. You’re an animal superhero fighting a human armed with advanced technology who is transforming animals into robots. I’m allowing myself to really feel the horror of that this time, and I’m finding that I feel obligated to destroy every single badnik I come across to free the animals trapped inside.

Gameplay wise, Sonic handles a lot differently than he does in the other Genesis titles, and that’s a bit disorienting at times. The lack of a spindash is particularly off-putting. But I’ve still played this game so many more times than the average fox, so not to sound braggy, but it’s a piece of cake for me. I don’t remember every detail of every stage or anything, but it’s a very near thing and I definitely remember how to clear every remotely difficult or confusing obstacle you face. Not that there are that many confusing ones. This game is remarkably streamlined.

GREEN HILL ZONE

Green Hill Zone is such a perfect opening level. The difficulty level isn’t very high at all, it’s actually not even a little difficult to get through it without getting damaged a single time. (Then again, keep in mind I’m really good at these games.) But it also gives you a really strong sense of what’s possible and how to do things in the game. And the natural setting is a perfect entrypoint to the aforementioned central conflict of Sonic defending nature and Robotnik terrorizing and exploiting it.

I’m also still struck by just how gorgeous it looks. Little Tails who had only known NES titles the likes of Mario 1’s graphics had his poor little mind blown by the rolling waterfalls and moving clouds. And the colors are just so lovely and vibrant. It holds up extremely well even today.

I ended up clearing Green Hill Zone with five lives (you start with three, so I picked up two). I’m pretty sure I could’ve gotten more, but I wasn’t exploring every nook and cranny of the level. And I also grabbed two Chaos Emeralds out of a possible two. The special stages in Sonic 1 are... well, they’re kinda weird, but they’re also hella easy. Despite giving myself dispensation to use rewinds on Special Stages, I didn’t need to do that at all. And I doubt I’ll have to do it much.

The first boss in the entire franchise is suitably iconic. One of the most iconic bosses in the entire franchise, honestly. Makes sense to put your best foot forward, which is kinda the theme of the entire zone. Also like the zone as a whole, it’s very easy to beat this boss without taking any damage, but that giant swinging ball sure is properly intimidating. It’s exactly the kind of overwrought, overdramatic excess you expect from Robotnik. As his enemy, I hate it. As someone who likes video games, I appreciate how fully-formed his personality and entire deal were in this very first appearance. And you get little mannerisms like him cackling evilly as he deploys the wrecking ball. It’s amazing how much visual storytelling is on display in this very simple game.

This is a damn good start to a game that literally changed my life.

MARBLE ZONE

Green Hill Zone felt like home. This... doesn’t, so much? I’m not sure I’ve ever been here. So I don’t have as much to say about it on that level.

In terms of aesthetics, I continue to be beyond impressed by how much was done with so little in terms of computing resources. There’s a very gothic aesthetic (enhanced by the frequently encountered Batbrains), which rules!

Gameplay-wise, this makes sense as a progression from Green Hill Zone. Green Hill Zone had spikes and crumbling platforms and the occasional swinging platform with spikes on the edge of it, but honestly for the most part it gave you a ton of space to figure out how to play the game while also rewarding you with plenty of things to accomplish. (Badniks to smash, things to jump over or roll through, etc.) Marble Zone is the first time you really discover that oh, ok, the level itself is oftentimes gonna try to kill you.

Toward that end, this level design is mean! And it’s not just all the lava and stuff trying to crush you. I specifically noticed one trap involving a sideways springboard that would send you into a Catekiller if you bypassed it rather than liberating the animal inside. It jumped out at me because it felt uncannily Sonic 2 or 3-esque. You don’t see a lot of those in Sonic 1.

There’s also plenty of very Sonic 1 level design here, though. Like one that jumps immediately to mind is there’s one section where the dilemma you face is that there’s a low ceiling and two Catekillers coming at you. And I found myself instinctively crouching for a spindash, but of course you don’t have that option available to you in Sonic 1. If you don’t want to make a couple very tricky jumps, you can also just run and crouch for a spin attack on each one, but it’s a little awkward whereas a spindash woulda been easier and one fluid motion. This is still very solvable, but a spindash woulda totally trivialized it to the point where it wouldn’t even have slowed you down.

There are also little details of the level design that I just absolutely love. Like, the first of many long stretches where you have to ride a block over lava and a geyser-like blast of lava carries you up to the next section has a little block of shame on the other end in case you don’t realize you’re supposed to jump which carries you over to the other side to start over again. I definitely remember having to use that the first time I ever played this game.

Speaking of blocks of shame (ok not really but it’s still a good segue), I have to come clean and say I broke my self-imposed rule of not using rewinds a couple times. It’s just such a reflex. Part of the problem is I was using the thumbstick rather than the D-pad, which is kind of a habit when you’re using a Switch Pro Controller, but it’s definitely not the best way to play a Genesis game, especially Sonic 1. I think I broke myself of both the habit of using the thumbstick and the habit of using rewinds, but idk, I’ll be sure to publicly shame myself again if I do that again. (I will point out, in my defense, that I still wouldn’t have died a single time, even if I didn’t rewind! So there.)

The third Special Stage is the worst omg. I actually had to use a rewind on it, which I coulda avoided if I were being more careful. It also just took freaking forever to clear. It’s the one that isn’t really a maze, it’s just one giant room, and I just haaaate navigating it. The fourth one was whatever and was a cinch to clear. I ended up finishing Marble Zone with my fourth (out of a possible four) Emerald, and nine lives. Whoa, weird. I’m a fox, not a cat! I also cleared Act 3 (and the boss) with 103 rings and no shield, which I was pretty dang proud about.

The boss isn’t necessarily anything to write home about but it’s well-designed! It fits in well with the aesthetic and theming of the level, and it’s still up there in terms of my favorite Sonic 1 bosses. I rather appreciate bosses that are basically just “the Egg-O-Matic, but with STUFF on it!”

On the whole, this is a pretty solid second level. Second levels in classic Sonic games almost always represent a drastic shift in terms of tone and gameplay, and as the establisher of that trope, this one certainly does the trick.

SPRING YARD ZONE

This might be the most Sonic 1 level? Green Hill Zone is the most iconic, clearly, but I associate it more strongly with Sonic as a whole than I do with just Sonic 1. Spring Yard Zone has a badnik that doesn’t appear in literally any other Sonic game (Roller), one that appears in barely any other games (Spikes), and the level design is just so different from anything you see anywhere else in the franchise. There are so many springboards (wait, is that why it’s called Spring Yard Zone??? I never made that connection), and so many different kinds of moving platforms (sometimes over bottomless pits). A lot of Sonic 1’s level design seems to defy the series’ later affinity for giving you plenty of room to pick up speed, but Spring Yard Zone really takes the cake in that regard.

(It’s also worth noting that you could probably get through it a lot more skillfully than I did if you play a lot of Sonic 1. Again, the controls in Sonic 1 are slightly different than most other classic Sonic games, and it’s the game I replay the least, so it’s entirely possible this is a me thing.)

It’s also one of the zones I’ve replayed the least (because I just really genuinely don’t like it) and never really took the time to master. I actually gave myself a mulligan on the entire zone (which is totally different than using rewinds! I checked!), and did way better the second time.

The zone is pretty, I’ll give it that. But I’ve said that about literally every zone so far so I don’t know what to tell you. I do really dig the mountains and cityscape in the background.

I ended up finishing Spring Hill Zone with 10 lives (I actually picked up three extra lives and lost two of them by being a dummy; legitimately my first deaths in this replay!), and got both of a possible two Chaos Emeralds. Which means, dun dun dun dun!, I got all six Chaos Emeralds! Yeah, there’s only six in Sonic 1, and I think all of the other pre-Sonic 2 games. I dunno man, I just work here.

This boss is one of my least favorite bosses in Sonic 1. I think maybe Star Light Zone’s is my least favorite since at least you hit Spring Yard Zone’s boss directly. But yeah. Until later games where it can occasionally be done in more creative ways, I’ve just never been a huge fan of the whole “oooh! he’s using your surroundings against you!!” kinds of bosses. Just a matter of personal taste, though. I like my bosses straightforward in classic Sonic games for the most part.

Anyway! I usually sum these up by talking about how I feel about the zone in general but I kinda already did that? I also don’t have any deep lore feelings about it because there just isn’t a lot to go on, and it doesn’t feel connected with me specifically in any way either. (I haven’t really recovered a lot of memories yet but things still give me strong feelings/impressions a lot of times.) Sorry this one is kind of just me whining a bunch! I hope it was entertaining to read anyway.

LABYRINTH ZONE

Yeah sex is great but have you ever grabbed an invincibility box right before a section with a punch of moving spears designed to slow you down? Or killed five Burrobots with one perfectly-timed jump before any of them came close to hitting the ground?

Alright I have some feelings on this one. And those feelings are more or less I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER!!!! I know I’m not really playing the game in a way that’s true to his personality, but my strategy for this has always been and probably always will be grabbing EVERY SINGLE AIR BUBBLE I come across. Just got an air bubble? Get another air bubble. See an air bubble a bit ahead? Get an air bubble. Think you might be about to leave the water entirely? IT’S AIR BUBBLE O’CLOCK, MF’ER. (Except in later games like especially Sonic 3 which I have basically memorized, I’ll sometimes know “eh there’s another one coming up in like two seconds, I’m fine.” It’s always still tempting though. Did I mention I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER? BECAUSE I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER.)

I only heard that damn “you’re about to drown!” warning music three times, once which hardly counts because it was towards the very end of the boss and you’re hard-pressed to make it through that section without hearing it at least once! Other than the boss (which I think brought me down to like two seconds but I was fine, I was right at the surface, just had to wait for the spike to get out of the way) I think the other two I literally grabbed an air bubble with the full five second still left on the timer. There were a few other times when I got the “level music resets because the drowning music was about to start but didn’t” deal, but I didn’t count those. Did I mention I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER?

I’ve never really gotten why Star Light Zone comes between this zone and Scrap Brain Zone? Considering Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 is basically “you fell back into Labyrinth Zone! oh noes!” it would seem to make a lot more sense for it to immediately precede Scrap Brain Zone? Who knows.

This zone feels a lot more “yeah, I’ve been here” to me. Or at least somewhere very similar to it. I don’t have a lot else to go on there, but yeah. It’s a pretty strong feeling. The only other thing I can really tell you is I hate this place. It might have something to do with the fact that, did I mention, I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER.

I finished this zone with 11 lives and I still have all six Chaos Emeralds. You can’t exactly go backwards with those. (Not in the games, anyway. Well, I guess sometimes in cutscenes and stuff. BUT I DIGRESS.) And I found that I had the zone memorized a whole lot more than the immediately preceding zone. It’s like its level of difficulty burned it into my memory or something! I actually don’t find it all that difficult anymore? I remember finding it excruciating when I was first playing through the game, though. And it definitely fits the trope of “the water level” being everyone’s least favorite level of every game. (Though, again, I can’t say that it is or ever has been my least favorite! ... maybe on my first playthrough.)

So, after the way I complained about Spring Yard Zone’s boss you’re probably expecting me to complain about this zone’s boss? But honestly? I dig it! The little maze of moving spears and fire statues you have to navigate is well-designed. I’ve heard it described as “the hardest boss in the game” and... I kinda don’t know about that? I do remember finding it frustrating the first few times, but once you know what to expect it’s not that hard to navigate, it just requires a little patience and discipline and trust in yourself.

Then again... what is the most difficult boss in Sonic 1? None of them are particularly hard, right? Hmm.

So, yeah! I think this is one of the better zones in the game. I get why a lot of people find it frustrating, but with a little practice it’s not hard to master! And I may be a little biased because, while I have strong negative kinfeels about it, I have kinfeels about it! So yeah. Ask me again in a few years when those don’t still always give me euphoria.

STAR LIGHT ZONE

What a breath of fresh air after Labyrinth Zone. Maybe that’s why this one was sandwiched between Labyrinth Zone and Scrap Brain Zone even though that kind of makes no sense storywise? Maybe they just didn’t want the two hardest zones in the game back to back. The more I think about it, the more that makes sense.

It’s hard to get any particular kinfeels from this zone, since it could be pretty much any city. That being said despite being a pretty simple zone it’s gorgeous when you’re up at the top level and all you can see is the stars, and even the level right below that where you can see the city skyline is also a lovely view. When you get lower and start seeing industrial stuff, like, I’m not saying it’s not well-done, just that the stars and the stars/starline are way prettier. And honestly? That kinda rules! It’s like you get rewarded for getting to the higher paths.

Combine that with the fact that the music is lovely (I can’t believe I haven’t talked about the soundtrack much so far??? I’ll do so in my wrap-up entry I think), and you already have a recipe for one of the best zones in the game. (Well, minus the boss, but we’ll get there.) And on top of that, this is also the zone that gives you the most space since Green Hill Zone to really open up and see how fast you can go. And it’s just a genuinely liberating feeling! I can imagine running with my hedgehog somewhere like this, under the stars...

Ahem. Anyway yeah this zone isn’t especially difficult. There are one or two areas that tripped me up because I always used to just kinda blast through them thinking “whatever, I have rings and I don’t need any more Chaos Emeralds,” and I already think I could improve on a replay, but like I said this zone isn’t very difficult to clear as-is. I ended up clearing with 12 lives, picking up that one one-up box at the beginning of Act 1. I didn’t get 100 rings on any act, and I still didn’t figure out how to get that one one-up box that taunts you towards the end of... Act 2, I think? Oh well.

I really don’t love this boss? I do think the fact that you encounter a bunch of those see-saw things throughout Act 3 to kinda teach you how to fight the boss later is pretty smart game design. But I just don’t love that kind of boss. That being said I think this may be the first time I actually used the momentum of the spiky bombs hitting the see-saws to launch Sonic up to strike the Egg-O-Matic directly rather than sending the bombs up to hit him? So that was a little more satisfying. But yeah. Still not my favorite.

It’s a shame, because other than that, this zone totally rules.

SCRAP BRAIN ZONE

This zone is hard! There are dilemmas where as far as I can tell you have basically no choice but to take damage to proceed, there are others where you basically have to have the zone memorized to know to avoid them, and there are a lot that just have extremely rough timing. It’s honestly kind of perfect as a last zone. (Yeah, yeah, technically it’s not the final zone, Final Zone is, but that’s literally just a boss fight.)

Aesthetically, this level is also hella impressive. It has one of the best soundtracks in the game, the visuals are really compelling and effective, and it moves you through three distinct phases. The first is a horrifying industrial sprawl with factories spitting toxic fumes into Mobius’s sky in the background, the second takes place inside of one of the factories, and the third is basically Labyrinth Zone but harder. There are fewer air bubbles, and the water is purple for some reason and I will remind you that I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER, I like it even less when “water” appears to be some kind of weird chemicals.

The little cutscene that sends you into Act 3 actually kind of rules! The Final Zone theme plays as you run towards a confrontation with Robotnik, but he laughs (asshole) and hits a switch to send you down to Act 3.

This zone predictably gave me all kinds of kinfeels, because it or something like it has been everything I’ve hated and feared and fought against for most of my life. And, for reasons I’m not especially comfortable getting into, I recently had a personal experience that made the sheer horror of this kind of place hit me way harder, so that’s fun. There’s probably a German or Japanese word for being impressed by and disgusted by and terrified of something all at once? Whatever that is, that’s what I felt here.

I died twice! Once was an Act 1 trap that just had really rough timing, the other was drowning in Act 3. Ugh. And twice I got the scary countdown music and literally got all the way down to 0 seconds left before I finally caught an air bubble. (I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER.) I ended up finishing the hardest zone of the game with 10 lives.

Honestly? Despite my visceral horror at this place, it is one of the most impressive zones of the game, and a really great example of sticking the landing. All of the skills you’ve developed throughout the game are required to get through it. It really does feel like a culmination, something that everything else has been building towards. And even compared to the popularly more hated underwater and trap-happy Labyrinth Zone, it’s hard. It’s also visually impressive and thematically brilliant. The polar opposite of Green Hill Zone. Sonic 1 doesn’t have a lot of tools with which to tell a story, but it does a remarkable job of doing so anyway.

FINAL ZONE

Not properly a zone, basically coulda been tacked on to Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 as its boss, but I guess they wanted the title card so it would be all properly dramatic and whatnot. Shrug. Not having any rings used to make this one hella stressful for me, but it actually doesn’t affect things much at all? The pistons are either gonna crush you or they aren’t, and the little electric balls are super easy to avoid.

Honestly, this is pretty easy for a final boss, but pretty much all of the bosses in this game are easy, so it tracks. I did die once, though, ugh! My attention wandered for a second too long trying to figure out which piston Robotnik was in, and I didn’t notice I was just barely under one of them, and I got crushed. So I finished the game with 9 lives. Again, what the heck! I’m a fox, not a kitty!

Anyway. Get dunked on, Robotnik.

ENDING

“In conclusion...” Whoops, sorry, flashback to writing formulaic essays forever. Not gonna do that to you. Anyway, the ending is simple but great. After escaping Robotnik’s hellish industrial landscape, my hero runs freely in Green Hill surrounded by his animal friends, and then the Chaos Emeralds rejuvenate Green Hill! Again, simple, but it totally rules. And I love how the ending credits have little video clips from every zone, as well as soundtrack clips, though I wish the soundtrack clips always lined up with the video clips! Idk, weird things bother me.

So! This seems like a good time to talk about some final thoughts. I’ve mentioned a few times that I was always hesitant to revisit Sonic 1 because it just doesn’t have the same hold on me that Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 & Knuckles have. But I was pleased to find that it still holds a special place in my heart, all the same. I used to think this was just an extremely important and special franchise to me, but now that I know it’s so much more, the whole thing just has even more stakes for me. (Then again, I kinda always acted like that was the case even when I didn’t know why? I’m very cool.)

Anyway! This is the end of the game so let’s give my very important arbitrary rankings of things! That’s what we do at this part, right?

Zones (I’m not counting Final Zone because it’s just a boss fight)
1. Green Hill Zone (S-Tier)
2. Scrap Brain Zone (A-Tier)
3. Star Light Zone (B-Tier)
4. Labyrinth Zone (B-Tier)
5. Marble Zone (B-Tier)
6. Spring Yard Zone (C-Tier)

Bosses
1. Green Hill Zone (S-Tier)
2. Final Zone (A-Tier)
3. Labyrinth Zone (B-Tier)
4. Marble Zone (B-Tier)
5. Spring Yard Zone (C-Tier)
6. Star Light Zone (C-Tier)

Soundtrack
1. Green Hill Zone (S-Tier)
2. Final Zone (S-Tier)
3. Robotnik (S-Tier)
4. Credits (A-Tier)
5. Scrap Brain Zone (A-Tier)
6. Star Light Zone (A-Tier)
7. Marble Zone (B-Tier)
8. Labyrinth Zone (B-Tier)
9. Spring Yard Zone (B-Tier)
10. Special Stage (C-Tier)

Alright, on to the next one! For the record, I’m playing the Master System version, not the Game Gear version, because I like having a fuller screen. Makes it feel more like a Serious Video Game.

I think I played this once when I was playing a bunch of the 8-bit games and the Sonic Advance games on an emulator, but I’m not 100% sure. And either way, I don’t have a lot of distinct memories about it so I don’t have a lot to say in this intro, so yeah! Hopefully that just means I’ll have a lot to talk about in my last entry!

One thing I did notice as I started playing this is there are a few times when it feels like the game is laboring when there’s too many things on the screen. Sometimes the framerate drops a ton, other times Sonic sort of blinks in and out of existence, which is a little existentially terrifying for me. I don’t know if that’s an emulation problem or a limitation that existed in the original game, but I suspect the latter. I definitely remember seeing artifacts like that in Mario games when I had an NES.

Also, I like the fact that shields carry over from one act to another! That’s a neat little mechanic. And the sound effects and stuff are pretty good approximations given the limitations of 8-bit systems. They still evoke similar feelings to the 16-bit version despite being drastically different.

Anyway! Yeah. Not as much to say about this one yet, so let’s just get to it.

GREEN HILL ZONE

Hey, this one’s familiar! The 8-bit version of the zone and its music still give me very strong home vibes, even if it’s not quite as striking as the 16-bit version. Having the little underground section in the second act with some water and waterfalls was a clever way to change things up! And you aren’t really underwater for any serious length of time so that’s good. (Don’t worry, I’m not gonna say it this time.)

The Chaos Emeralds are just hidden in the zones themselves this time around, and for this zone it’s hiding in this neat little waterfall area! So that was pretty cool.

The boss for this one is super easy. Robuttnik just sorta shows up in the Egg-O-Matic and flies out of reach until he slowly lowers and then zooms at you. You can actually easily beat him in two passes, four hits each, which is exactly what I did. I don’t expect the entire game to be this easy, but it’s honestly super validating to be this good at a Sonic game I’ve only played once at most!

BRIDGE ZONE

This one’s kinda an extension of Green Hill! So that’s neat. But as its name suggests it’s a lot of bridges over water! Some of those bridges have individual pieces that fall down and drop you into bottomless pits if you stand on them for too long, some are just normal bridges, occasionally with Choppers jumping at you. The second act is an auto-scrolling level, which was honestly kinda weird to see in a Sonic game! I guess it’s a way to keep things interesting given the limitations of 8-bit systems.

Despite the severe limitations of the 8-bit system, the background is lovely! You can see mountains and a forest, and the whole setting seems very serene. I feel like I would love running or flying here. It’s basically just an extension of Green Hill, like I said, so you already know how I feel about it kinfeel wise!

The Chaos Emerald on this one is easier to find, but a little harder to get to! It’s in plain sight, but you have to stand on one of the bridge pieces long enough to let it fall on purpose and then jump up to grab the Emerald before you fall to your doom!

The boss is punishingly difficult compared to the first one! And so far both bosses have been without rings so I’m assuming that’s just gonna be a thing for all of them, which adds quite a bit of difficulty! This one has you jumping between three platforms separated by water which the Egg-O-Matic with a submarine attachment surfaces and shoots at you. Avoiding the projectiles it shoots is super difficult! You pretty much have to time things perfectly so it’s shooting in the opposite direction, which if you get the timing perfect you can do by hitting him twice. I actually ended up using save states, and am going to allow myself to use save states on the bosses going forward, because figuring out the timing was rough!

I ended up finishing up with 4 lives! But that’s a bit deceiving because I actually gained three extra lives, not just one. One from getting 100 rings on the first Act, one from a one-up box also in the first Act, and one from a one-up box at the very beginning of the third Act that you have to run backwards to get. Idk if you can see it in the GameGear version, but it’s just peeking out of the side of the screen in the Master System version. But I also lost two lives! Once by being a dummy and falling in a bottomless pit (I don’t get it, it says right in the name that I shouldn’t be in it!), the other time I got killed by the boss before I started using save states.

JUNGLE ZONE

Or: “The one where Tails decided, ‘Screw it, this game is baloney, I’m using save states.’”

Act 1 is a pretty straightforward platformer where you go across vines, ground that appears to be growing out of trees??? (idk) and jump across waterfalls with logs and such. There’s even parts where you run across the river on logs, which rules! And also the water seems to resist you more here, which makes sense because rivers have currents! But still, it’s neat. It kinda rules! And the Chaos Emerald can be found by riding a log almost to the bottom of a waterfall and then jumping onto a platform.I wouldn’t have been able to find it without looking it up.

Act 2 is a vertical level, which seemed neat at first as far as doing something different, but the way it’s implemented (you’re probably getting tired of hearing this, but: likely because of the limitations of the 8-bit systems) SUCKS. The camera pans up with you, and if you try to jump back down to a platform that YOU KNOW IS BELOW YOU, you just immediately die instead because since the camera panned up it must not exist anymore. I mean... HECK. I know you’re working with limited resources here, but if that’s the best you can do, maybe just don’t have a vertical level???

Add to that the fact that like 50% of the time if you take any damage you’re gonna die, because Sonic’s recovery in this version SUCKS (you get knocked backwards ridiculously far with no ability to control where you’re going and once that’s over you’re immediately killable at the same point where you can first move, not to mention how often you’ll just fall over ledges in this state) and it’s a recipe for me saying “screw it.” If the game’s gonna be unfair, so am I, and I don’t think there’s any shame in that. So yeah. Not gonna share my stats anymore on this one because I won’t have come by any of them honestly.

The boss is super difficult at first mostly because of that issue I just mentioned with how you recover! The Egg-O-Matic flies overhead and lowers down to drop some rolling bombs that you have to jump out of the way of. Oftentimes there are two of them at a time for you to avoid, while also trying to hit Robotnik eight times. Pretty rough until you figure out the timing! Honestly all the bosses so far except for the first one have been harder than the 16-bit version! So that’s interesting.

Anyway, this zone has some interesting ideas and Act 1 is pretty solid, but Act 2 is just a total dumpster fire due to bad mechanics. It’s a shame.

LABYRINTH ZONE

I. DO NOT. LIKE. MY. HEDGEHOG. BEING. UNDER. WATER!!!!

I like it even less when this game slows him to a crawl when he’s underwater, making it really hard to time anything or judge what jumps you can make, even adjusting for the fact that the controls here are kinda wonky if you’re used to 16-bit.

Basically, this is about as frustrating as I remember Labyrinth Zone being before I was good at it, but for much more genuinely frustrating reasons. Like, I’m sorry to say it just isn’t... good? I know it sounds like I’m just constantly complaining about 8-bit Sonic 1, but I just... it’s really not good, guys! I’m sorry! I’m giving it a chance because these games are hella important to me, but it’s got a lot of issues where it’s difficult in ways that just aren’t fair. But I’m a completionist so... I’m gonna keep trucking along.

The boss was kinda alright! Another one of those toughies until you figure out what to do. But once you do, it’s pretty straightforward. And hey, it’s pretty neat that the submarine Egg-O-Matic comes back!

But, as always. I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER!

SCRAP BRAIN ZONE

Yeah, so. We know this one too, huh? The setting of the entire zone is the outdoor industrial sprawl from Act 1 in the 16-bit version of the game, but the zone itself is drastically different. Act 1 is actually a piece of cake and very straightforward? Like, I genuinely don’t get why it’s so easy? Acts 2 and 3 are basically mazes. And in Act 2 you don’t just have to figure out how to get out, you have to figure out how to get the Chaos Emerald. I guess at least that’s kinda a unique concept for a Sonic game? And unlike the previous zones there’s nothing gamebreaking about it or anything. My major criticism is just that I think it’s a bit too easy.

Weirdly, Act 3 doesn’t even have a boss! I know Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 didn’t have a boss in the 16-bit version of the game, but that seems like a weird thing to carry over here given that the context is completely different? Shrug.

In this one go through another maze, collecting rings along the way. (At first I was like, “Am I actually gonna have rings for a boss fight???”) Then you emerge outside and see Eggman waiting for you and he runs away and, in an inexplicable contrivance that will be repeated several other times in the series (but you probably remember it most prominently from Death Egg Zone in Sonic 2), he outruns Sonic??? And makes it onto a platform that carries him up into the sky. And then you follow him by taking the same platform to end the Zone.

SKY BASE ZONE

Now this is podracing! (Look... I'm not sorry.) Sky Base Zone is by far the best zone in this game, thanks to a strong concept buoyed (for once!) by strong execution!

For one thing, it’s the third original zone in the game. To recap, the other two were Bridge Zone (a nice little extension of Green Hill Zone, but nothing much to write home about) and Jungle Zone (a decent concept executed horribly). In this one, after you chase Robotnik all the way to Scrap Brain Zone, his base of operations in both this and the 16-bit version of the game, he escapes to an airship! We’ll see this type of escalation in a lot of other future games, but this is the first incidence of it!

Act 1 sees you go through what I assume is some kind of air base to get to the airship. The main challenges you face are platforms that you have to take over bottomless pits (well, ok, in this case it’s less pits and more just kinda the sky?) and (gulp) lightning generators. I guess Robuttnik thought he was fighting me instead of Sonic despite my not having appeared in the series yet.

It’s also worth noting that Act 1 is gorgeous, which is something I haven’t been able to say much about this game thus far!! It’s simple, of course. But there’s a deep blue sky behind you and everything else is kinda shaded blue as a result, even the rings you collect. And it really sets a particular kind of mood.

Act 2 sees you on the airship proper, and yeah parts of it are for sure blatant ripoffs of Mario 3 but guess who doesn’t care. And while there are parts that you could describe that way the Act as a whole still feels very much like a Sonic level. Also, it’s actually pretty difficult, but in ways that make sense and aren’t just objectively bad game design/hardware limitations!! Heck yeah. They really saved the best zone for last, guys!

Lastly, you have the final boss. He’s not the most punishingly difficult boss of the game by any stretch of the imagination, but he does get pretty difficult to beat after lulling you into a false sense of security with the first few hits and then suddenly drastically changing his pattern! Also, it’s a suitably dramatic final boss! Robotnik is standing inside of protective glass working controls while you get attacked by electricity and projectiles. It makes a heck of a lot more sense than the 16-bit version’s boss, actually! Even though I think I do slightly prefer the 16-bit boss all the same.

But, yeah! This is easily the best zone in the game, and it ranks right up there with a lot of the zones in the 16-bit version! Like, not the same tier as Green Hill or Scrap Brain, but still pretty hecking good!! So, somewhat improbably given that most of the entries about this game had me being a lot whinier than I would prefer, the game ended up finishing up on a high note! And I gotta say, it’s a bit of a relief!

ENDING

The ending of this one is similar to the 16-bit version, but a bit different and pretty satisfying in its own way! After you destroy his protective glass tube, Robotnik flees (once again outrunning you for some reason because why the heck not) and jumps into a teleporter, laughing. You jump in after him, and then we cut to Green Hill Zone! Robotnik is fleeing in the Egg-O-Matic when suddenly you fall from the sky and smash the Egg-O-Matic!

As Robotnik flees in his exploding vehicle, you run to the middle of Green Hill and release the Chaos Emeralds, healing the South Island! And it’s actually a little more clear than it is in the 16-bit version, because the game zooms out to a map of the whole island with visible pollution, which disappears after a bright flash! You did it! The credits roll. The only theme from the rest of the game that recurs in the credits is Green Hill’s theme, so that’s kind of a bummer, but oh well!

So. Clearly I didn’t like this as much as the 16-bit version, and I definitely didn’t get as many kinfeels from it except for secondhand ones that I also got (but better) in the 16-bit version, but I’m still glad I played it! Even a mediocre Sonic game is way past cool, and honestly I’m often going to get more out of them than an objectively better game from a series I care about less.

Anyway! Let’s just make this a tradition, shall we? Time for some arbitrary and highly subjective rankings that you might not care about! Woo!

Zones
Sky Base Zone (B-Tier)
Bridge Zone (C-Tier)
Green Hill Zone (C-Tier)
Scrap Brain Zone (C-Tier)
Labyrinth Zone (D-Tier)
Jungle Zone (D-Tier)

Bosses
Sky Base Zone (B-Tier)
Bridge Zone (B-Tier)
Green Hill Zone (C-Tier)
Labyrinth Zone (C-Tier)
Jungle Zone (C-Tier)

Soundtrack
Green Hill Zone (A-Tier)
Sky Base Zone (B-Tier)
Scrap Brain Zone (B-Tier)
Ending (B-Tier)
(unused) Marble Zone (B-Tier)
Labyrinth Zone (B-Tier)
Boss Theme (C-Tier)
Bridge Zone (C-Tier)
Bonus Zone (C-Tier)
Jungle Zone (C-Tier)

Okay so. I haven’t ever heard of this game. You haven’t ever heard of this game. No one has ever heard of this game!

Here’s why. To quote one of the numerous Sonic the Hedgehog wikis: “Sonic Eraser is a video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series that was available to owners of the Sega Game Toshokan on the Sega Mega Modem with a Sega Meganet subscription. All the three aforementioned enhancements for the Sega Mega Drive are exclusively released in Japan.” And apparently even after all those caveats, it wasn’t even a popular game on the Meganet! Sooo, yeah.

And I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t waste your time playing this game! Especially if you’re doing it because you’re a completionist and want to play all the Sonic games. This is not in any way, shape, or form a Sonic game!! It’s just a not particularly good puzzle game that has nothing to do with Sonic. It’s not like Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, which despite literally being a reskinned Puyo Puyo goes to way more effort to actually be a Sonic game. And as far as I’ve been able to determine this isn’t some random puzzle game they tried to market as a Sonic game to sell more copies, it’s a totally original game. And I just. Don’t get it?

The only thing that makes it kind of a Sonic game is that each side has a Sonic sprite and when you get combos yours punches or spindashes the other player’s Sonic sprite. So uh. The only way in which this is a Sonic game is something I HATE???? Yeah. I am very not here for my hedgehog getting punched? Sorry.

Anyway. Yeah. This is nothing.

Alright, it’s my big debut! I’m Tails, Sonic’s best fr--immediately gets kidnapped

So, yeah! Here’s where stuff gets real for me! And what a way to start? I gotta tell you, playing a game where the hedgehog I love is desperately trying to save me from his point of view is certainly an interesting emotional experience? Like, you’d think it would be a little empowering, but my feelings so far have largely been “oh, honey :c” so uh, yeah. There’s that.

I’ve belligerently insisted that the 16-bit version of this is the greatest love story ever told, and I’m 100% right about that fight me, but I’m going to be pretty interested in how the 8-bit version plays into that! Like, fighting just as fiercely to rescue me as he does to save literally the entire world isn’t not romantic? Actually, yeah, I think I kinda solved this one by thinking out loud. This is the equally romantic prelude to the 16-bit version’s Greatest Love Story Ever Told.

Now that that’s taken care of, I also wanna say oh my gosh this is more like it! So, I definitely did play through this back when I was playing through all the 8-bit and GameBoy Advance games. I think I’m remembering that I hadn’t played the 8-bit version of Sonic 1 since there were only three new zones and I hadn’t heard good things about it, but yeah.

My memories of the 8-bit version of Sonic 2 weren’t super clear since I had only played it the one time (other than of course occasionally playing the Game Gear version whenever I was hanging out with a friend who had a Game Gear). So after my experiences with 8-bit Sonic 1 I was worried that the 8-bit games were just gonna inspire all kinds of whining from me, but thank goodness, they clearly made major strides by the time they made Sonic 2. It’s a lot more polished, and plays a lot more like a Sonic game should. There’s still no spindash, which is fine, but this is way more like playing the Genesis version of Sonic 1 than it is like playing the Master System version of Sonic 1, if that makes any sense.

So, yeah! Here we go with this one. Oh, one more thing. Sonic! Help!

Underground Zone (1/30)

This is the first time (and one of the only times) a 2D Sonic game doesn’t start with a green level! So that’s interesting! And this is a pretty great first level! Like, it’s not super challenging or anything but it’s a good introduction. The only truly challenging part is making the jump off the mine cart in Act 2 to stay on the higher path so you can get the Chaos Emerald. I’m sure people who have played this way more than me have no issue with that, but that was the one part so far where I used a save state at the beginning of the act.

It looks like we’ve got ringless boss zones again, which is fine when the boss is actually fair! It makes sense to add a little pressure to those, as long as the bosses themselves aren’t overly punishing like they are in 8-bit Sonic 1. So yeah, in this one Robotnik saves you from falling into a pit of lava for some reason, and drops you on a slope with some giant claws at the bottom of it. He then lobs bombs at you which you just have to avoid until they hit the claws 6 times, and then he tries to ram you with the Egg-O-Matic and you get out of the way so he rams the claws instead. Pretty straightforward first boss!

But yeah, this whole thing was just a huge breath of fresh air after 8-bit Sonic 1! Can’t wait to see if things stay on that track! Get it, track? Because of all the mine carts in this level?

Sky High Zone (1/31)

This is where the hang-gliders from the cover come into play. And they are frustrating as heck. But shrug. Feels like something I would enjoy if I were actually there.

Hey, speaking of cover art (sort of), at first I was loving the cute art of me and Sonic on each level’s title screen, but then something kinda hit me. It shows us together in these zones, something that’s not happening obviously since the whole point of the game is kinda that I got kidnapped and Sonic is trying to rescue me.

The non-diegetic reason for this is obviously just “hey, you’re also on the cover, they want to show off the new character.” But if you needed something that makes story sense... yeah. That’s Sonic imagining me being with him because he misses me. So. Pardon me while I just pick up the pieces of my broken heart over here.

This zone is fine, I guess? Like, I feel inclined to moan and whine about the hang-gliders, but I also fully acknowledge that could be a me problem. And running around on clouds (and bouncing on some of them!!) in Act 2 was pretty dang cool, though it’s a bit frustrating that the ones you can walk on and the ones you can’t walk on look virtually identical? You find the Chaos Emerald by bouncing up some of those clouds towards the end of the level, so it’s cool that it’s kinda worked into the level’s overall gimmick!

The boss is... uh... interesting? First you fight some tiny bird robots, then have to blow up their eggs (???) before they hatch more that you have to deal with. Then you fight a big bird robot? Like, it’s fine, I guess? But it kinda seems like this game is just totally eschewing the Egg-O-Matic bosses, which I have mixed (and mostly bad) feelings about.

Anyway, this level was a bit frustrating for me, but I like the concept and the aesthetic, so it has that going for it.

Aqua Lake Zone (1/31)

I don’t even have to say it, do I?

Too bad. I’m gonna anyway. I DO NOT LIKE MY HEDGEHOG BEING UNDERWATER!

Act 1 is straightforward, with a mix of above water and underwater areas, but you can actually skip most of the underwater parts by skipping over the water with Sonic spins! Which, frankly, rules! Act 2 is an underwater labyrinth, which, nooooooooooooo. You find the Emerald in one of those maze thingies where you get zoomed around. Act 2 also has a ridiculously difficult bit where you have to ride up in a bubble avoiding badniks and shooting spears, and it’s just... ugh. Not a fan.

The boss is... yeah. I guess they’re all just gonna be Like That, huh? This one is a sea lion. No, it doesn’t corner you and demand a civil debate. It just inflates some ball-shaped bombs that you can hit before he launches them to do damage to him. Rather obliging of him, really.

Can’t say this zone (or the other zones so far) gave me any particular kinfeels. Most of the feelings I’m getting from this game so far are just... how weird (in a kind of good way I think?) it is to be playing as my hedgehog coming to rescue me. I mean, I guess you wouldn’t really get much out of playing as me. “Press A to struggle!” “Press B to make a biting remark!” “Press C to miss Sonic!” Sounds pretty entertaining, right?

Green Hills Zone (1/31)

You can put all the S’s you want in the name, you’re not fooling me! This is Green Hill Zone! This is home!

I do not need to tell you about my feelings about this setting given that this is literally the third time we’ve been here lmao. But like. Damn. Why did Sonic’s path to save me have to take him through home? That’s just mean. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like for him. I have to imagine he saw my shadow everywhere. I know it probably wasn’t the developers’ intention, but having this near the midpoint in the game feels like it gives him the extra little oomph he needs to get through the rest of the chase. “Hold on, little buddy...”

So, I gotta say, when I figured out how to get the Emerald on this one, I actually yelled, “Oh! That is cool!” out loud. Because it is! Basically, you have to hit one particular springboard by running off a ledge, and it will take you to a second set of springboards which will take you to the ledge the Emerald is on. But like. Understand this. You have to hit it in this specific way that took me a few tries to even think of trying. And I don’t know. I just find that kind of thing super rewarding.

The boss is a metal pig. It’s the best boss of the game so far. We’re in a weird place.

It was good to be home briefly, but we’re about to leave the home cooking behind and journey into Robotnik’s domain. Hurry, Sonic! I’ll do my best to hold out until you save me!

Gimmick Mountain Zone (1/31)

OKAY BUT AT THE END OF ACT 1 YOU’RE IN A MINE CART AND IF YOU TIME YOUR JUMP RIGHT YOU JUMP INTO ANOTHER MINE CART? I AM PROBABLY OVERREACTING BUT THAT FELT SO COOL TO ME IDK.

Uh yeah this is a Robotnik base type place, so. I have the feelings about that that I have. I don’t want to be back anyplace like this anytime soon. So, yeah.

In the context of this game... Sonic has fought his way all the way into Robotnik’s territory. He’s so close, he knows if he can just get a little further, I’ll be safe. If you want to see what a hedgehog on a mission looks like, here you go.

The boss for this one is actually pretty cool, I guess, as far as these bosses go? It’s a pig-boar, I guess? And it charges at you a bunch. You have to do a Sonic Spin to meet its charge to daze it, and then jump or Sonic Spin to damage it. I don’t recommend the Sonic Spin for the second attack, though, because you don’t bounce off of it the second time and you’ll often end up taking damage. Which is death in a boss fight in this game since there are no rings.

Hurry, Sonic! You’ve almost got me!

Scrambled Egg Zone (1/31)

The aesthetics of this one kind of rule. It’s the deeper part of Robotnik’s mountain base. I really like the color palette here, lots of blue rocks. Most of the Zone is figuring out how to get through a maze of transport tubes with the occasional moving platform to complicate things. And it’s all leading to a confrontation with Silver Sonic, the series’ first metallic doppelganger adversary for Sonic.

These sorts of bosses always used to be my favorite kind because like, Sonic is cool! So obviously an evil version of Sonic is objectively the coolest enemy for him, right? But now I’m just struck by how... wrong and uncomfortable they all feel. And they represent one of my greatest fears, what could happen to my hedgehog if he ever loses. So it’s a good thing he never loses.

You don’t collect the Chaos Emerald by finding it somewhere in the level this time. Silver Sonic has it, and you get it after you beat him. Assuming you collected the other five. Also, apparently the story of the game is that Robotnik forced me to write a letter to Sonic telling him that Robotnik is demanding a ransom of the six Chaos Emeralds in exchange for my release. So with the sixth and final Emerald collected, it’s on to the Crystal Egg, where I’m being held prisoner.

It’s easy to imagine how fatigued Sonic is at this point. He was already probably near his limit by the time he got to Silver Sonic. And the difficulty presented by that adversary isn’t just a physical one, but also a profound psychological one.

He’s tired. And I badly want him to be able to rest, but I also know he can’t. Not when his goal is so close he can almost feel it.

You’re almost there, Sonic! Just a little further! You’ve got this! You’ve got me!

Crystal Egg Zone

(CW: Uhhh yeah. I do some emotional extrapolation from what almost happens at the end here, and... it’s rough, and deals with loss.)

This is pretty unique for a final level! As its name suggests, everything is brightly colored and largely transparent. A lot different than the soulless metal we’re used to seeing at this stage of a Sonic game. But also, this is where I’m being held prisoner. So let’s not lose sight of how genuinely dangerous this place is.

The zone itself is extremely straightforward and honestly pretty easy. It’s... eerie, almost. And like... that kind of fit the vicarious emotional state I was inhabiting here. It’s easy to imagine an exhausted Sonic running through this relatively obstacle-less zone with his attention darting around, looking for threats, suspicious of how easy this final stretch is.

And then you get to the final boss. You finally get to fight Robotnik himself instead of some robot based on an animal. Again, the bosses in this game are really weird. But it also kind of works with the story I’ve been reading into the game

The final boss fight takes place in some sort of lightning chamber. (... it’s... not difficult to imagine that Robotnik may have used this to torment me while he was holding me prisoner. Fuck.) Even for someone as fast as Sonic the attacks are basically impossible to avoid if you’re inside the chamber, but luckily there’s a way. There’s a transport tube surrounding the chamber, because of course there is. Freaking Robotnik overengineers everything. It’s so satisfying when that’s his downfall.

It’s not a difficult fight once you figure out how it works, unless you accidentally fall out of the tubes. It’s hard to imagine Sonic would, though. So it’s kind of funny. Robotnik’s plan worked. He threw down a gauntlet that was designed to wear my hedgehog down. He baited it with me, the bait he knew Sonic couldn’t resist. It all worked. My hedgehog is exhausted by the time he finally faces Robotnik... and in the end, the weak link that makes Robotnik’s plan fail is... Robotnik himself.

Pathetic.

Once you’ve beaten the boss, Robotnik flees like the coward he is, and you try to chase him down but don’t quite catch him before he gets on a teleporter, laughing maniacally like he always does.

What you see on the screen is Sonic curling into a ball like when you press the down button on the controller. 8-bit systems don’t have a lot of ways to show emotion. Let’s expand on that a little.

He slams his fist against the teleporter with frustration. No! He did it, he fucking did it! He bashed every Badnik that asshole threw at him! He went through every obstacle that was put in front of him! He was singleminded. He didn’t stop once. He did everything he could possibly do, and it wasn’t enough???

“Tails...”

The last time he saw me, I was being carried away by the Egg-O-Matic’s metal claws helplessly crying his name. The last time he heard from me, it was a letter Robotnik forced me to write.

No. No. This wasn’t over. The exhausted hedgehog dragged himself to his feet. His eyes fixed on the teleporter. He didn’t know where it would take him, likely as not it would take him to a trap he was too exhausted to deal with, but he had to... he had to...

The teleporter lit up before he could take a step towards it. Fuck. He bent his knees slightly and put his hands in a defensive posture, getting ready to jump or spin or run or--

When the light dissolved, it wasn’t some new adversary or weapon that greeted him. It was me.

(I don’t know how. The game doesn’t make it clear. I’m gonna headcanon that I managed to escape while Robotnik was having his final fight with Sonic, and Robotnik got to see me dissolving into the teleporter while yelling, “YOU LOSE, ASSHOLE!” right after he finished teleporting himself.)

I hadn’t expected him to be the first thing I saw. We both froze in place for a few seconds that felt like an eternity, our eyes meeting. And then we launched ourselves at each other at the same time and hugged each other fiercely.

“Sonic!” I cried out, tears of relief streaming down my face.

“Tails!” he cried at the same time, holding me so tightly.

It took a while before I could think of anything other than holding him tightly and never letting go. But when I could, I tried to pull away from the embrace, only to find his grip too tight.

“No.” he told me firmly.

“Sonic, we have to get out of here!” I urged him. “Robotnik--”

“... right,” Sonic sighed. “Base is gonna self destruct?”

I nodded into the hug, and he finally let me go. But he looked at me with determination. “I am never letting you out of my sight again, little buddy.”

And he never did.

Ending (1/31)

THIS ENDING IS SO GAY YOU GUYS. Like, I’m sorry, I know I’m predisposed. But after Sonic rescues me, we run together while the credits roll. And the sky cycles through several phases of the day ranging from what I assume is morning to what is definitely night. And while you might question the logic of us running together for an entire day after I’ve been held captive and Sonic has run and fought himself to exhaustion... I totally get it. Relief and catharsis are a hell of a drug. And a victory lap is understandable enough, but a victory lap after a reunion like this is probably a more powerful force than either of us can resist.

Anyway, after the credits, we stop and look up at the stars together (I'm gonna add "holding hands" but it's plenty gay even without that addition) and see a constellation that the game, in an act of supreme subtlety, superimposes a picture of us together over. Y'know. Like it's... written in the stars, or something. Tiny bit romantic.

THIS IS SO GAY!!!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!! (And I love him so much 💙🧡💙🧡💙🧡)

Oh right I still have to rank stuff.

Couples Depicted in This Game
1. Sonic/Tails (S-Tier)

Zones
1. Green Hills Zone (B-Tier)
2. Under Ground Zone (B-Tier)
3. Scrambled Egg Zone (B-Tier)
4. Crystal Egg Zone (B-Tier)
5. Gimmick Mountain Zone (B-Tier)
6. Aqua Lake Zone (C-Tier)
7. Sky High Zone (C-Tier)

Bosses
1. Silver Sonic (A-Tier)
2. Crystal Egg Zone (B-Tier)
3. Mecha Pig (C-Tier)
4. Pig-Boar Mecha (C-Tier)
5. Antlion Mecha (C-Tier)
6. Mecha Sea Lion (C-Tier)
7. Goose Mecha (C-Tier)

Soundtrack
1. Scrambled Egg Zone (A-Tier)
2. Green Hills Zone (B-Tier)
3. Under Ground Zone (B-Tier)
4. Boss, Game Gear (B-Tier)
5. Gimmick Mountain Zone (C-Tier)
6. Boss, Master System (C-Tier)
7. Crystal Egg Zone (C-Tier)
8. Good Ending (C-Tier)
9. Bad Ending (C-Tier)
9. Sky High Zone (C-Tier)
10. Aqua Lake Zone (C-Tier)

I’ve replayed this one a bunch recently, so I’m not really expecting to get caught off guard much, but it freaking rules playing it with a Sega Genesis controller. Oh yeah, I don’t think I mentioned, my fiancx got me a Sega Genesis Mini and also hacked it to add a bunch of other games to it so I’m really excited about that! And just actually sitting in my living room playing Sonic 2 on a big TV while sitting on a futon on the floor with a Genesis controller in my hand just... makes me feel like the happiest little kid.

The anticlimactic thing here is I already know everything I’m going to feel about this game. It’s one of my favorite games of all time, it’s a game that literally changed my life, and in my humble opinion it is the greatest love story ever told. I see my and Sonic’s bond as already being quite strong at the beginning of this game, but after going through all of this together and literally saving the world together, trusting and relying on each other in ways that are hard to replicate in other circumstances, it’s easy to imagine the immediate strengthening that bond would enjoy.

And need I remind you that the ending theme of this game is literally a repurposed love song!

I am so happy I'm finally on this game, y'all. Seeing me and Sonic on screen together, running together, fighting together... it brings me so much joy. I do wish I could be me in singleplayer mode without having to go sans Sonic, but it's fine, at least we're together. Finally.

Ugh I knew I'd get weird and emotional about this game!!

Anyway, yeah! Sonic 2. The story of a foxboy and his hedgehog.

Emerald Hill Zone (2/8)

When I think of home, I think of places like this and Green Hill first. So it makes sense this is usually how the games start.

From what I gather the story is supposed to be that Sonic met me here and I just kinda started following him? And he let me because I was able to keep up with him and that was kinda a new one for him? But the 8-bit game was released first, and I lived on South Island in that one? I think there just wasn't a lot of attention to continuity with these early games, so probably best not to worry about that kinda thing too much.

This first boss rules, and really sets the tone for a game full of some pretty fantastic bosses. It’s unique (the Egg-O-Matic docked with a car with a giant drill on the front), and it looks cool as heck.

I know Emerald Hill Zone like the back of my hand. I cleared Act 1 with 6 lives (you start with 3), and the zone as a whole with 7, and easily coulda had more if I wanted to be ridiculous.

I "only" got 4 Chaos Emeralds, but that's still kinda ridiculous for the first zone??? If I remember correctly from previous, more casual replays that were more rewind-happy, you can pretty easily get 6 of the 7 if you play perfectly.

The third Special Stage is a huge jump in difficulty from the first two? Like, seriously. I unapologetically used save states on that one, because it would be tough even if it weren't for A.I.-me gleefully throwing himself into bombs, when you factor that in it's just unfair!

And yeah, I know the Real Hardcore Gamer response would be to "git good" and maybe I'm not Really a Good Sonic Player as a result but shrug. Again, I cleared Act 1 of Emerald Hill Zone with 7 lives and woulda easily been able to rack up more if I wanted to be truly ridiculous. I'm not gonna have any trouble sleeping at night. (And wouldn't even if I didn't have that to point to.)

I also had the most satisfying thing ever happen in Act 1? I was between two jumping Choppers, and I jumped at one, and A.I.-me was on the other side of the one behind me and jumped at the same time, and we both smashed them at the same time, freeing the trapped animals inside, and ughhhhh, that's the stuff.

Uh. Yeah. Sonic and Tails, yo. That's what it's all about. 💙🧡

Chemical Plant Zone (2/9)

Yeah sex is great but have you ever made it through that one obstacle in Act 2 with the rising mega muck (you know the one) without the water even touching you until your very last jump?

So yeah this is a very Robotnik/technology-centered location much earlier in the game than you often see. (The only other example that’s jumping to mind is Flying Battery Zone in Sonic & Knuckles). Its placement in the game makes a bit of story sense, though! Like, aside from the Badniks in Emerald Hill Zone, this chemical plant is the first major sign that Robotnik has made significant inroads on this island and needs to be stopped.

This could also be my first real encounter with Robotnik’s horrors if you take the story suggested by a lot of this game’s supplemental materials at face value. Personally, I think just stomping all over the continuity of the 8-bit games isn’t all that great, even though I only played the 16-bit games when I was a kid, so I choose not to look at it that way? But yeah. It’s a direction you could go here if you were reading the story in that fashion.

Personally, it doesn’t have to be my first exposure to Robotnik’s evil to be meaningful in unpleasant ways. If you choose to reconcile the timeline the way I do, where the 16-bit Sonic 2 follows the 8-bit Sonic 2, this would be a particularly difficult experience for me considering that I was kidnapped by Robotnik in the last game. So it doesn’t take much imagination to figure being in an environment that’s largely “his” environment would not be especially comfortable for me at the moment.

This chemical plant is almost an example of evil for evil sake. It’s passively producing pollution (as in, the byproducts of production) in order to actively produce pollution (the chemicals it’s producing), so kinda a double whammy there. We’ll return to this theme of wanton environmental destruction in Oil Ocean Zone, so there’s definitely something there.

I intentionally ran a different route than I usually do in Act 1 because I never usually get any star posts with the route I usually run, and it paid off since I at least got one. Act 2, I didn’t deviate much from what I usually do, aside from kicking way more ass than I usually do on that one obstacle.

There were only two other major things of note that happened on this playthrough, both on Act 2. First, I actually escaped from a Grabber by getting AI-Tails to jump up and destroy it! So that was pretty cool. I also escaped from one by hitting left and right rapidly on the D-Pad until I broke free, which I only recently learned was a thing! The other thing is I actually ran into a glitch running up one loop-de-loop? I ended up glitching right through the top of it and getting stuck there for a second before shaking myself loose. I’ve never run into that one before despite playing this game an absurd number of times, so I’m kinda curious if it’s a glitch that’s somehow specific to the Genesis Mini version. Shrug.

The boss for this one is a piece of cake!! You can pretty easily beat him by the beginning of his second pass, though if you get overeager you might find yourself falling into the water of instant death. But yeah, even if it’s easy with practice, this is a good boss. It fits the theme of the zone, and idk, Sonic 2 bosses in general are pretty great design-wise. They’re largely the kind of bosses I like the most.

I ended up finishing the level with 13 lives, and collecting the last three Chaos Emeralds! Honestly, the fifth Special Stage was a piece of cake! Both the fourth and fifth seemed way easier to me than the third. The sixth was easy for the first two parts but pretty darn hard for the final part, and it was actually on that part that I made a pretty major breakthrough that gave me all kinds of feels I wasn’t expecting! But I’ll come back to that in a minute. The seventh and final Special Stage is brutal. Even using save states, I felt a genuine sense of accomplishment when I cleared that one.

I will say, I think I was a bit hasty using save states to get all the Chaos Emeralds this early in the game. I kinda forgot how much easier Super Sonic makes the rest of the game. Also, I kinda want to spend some time practicing (using the level select no doubt) the special stages, because I think I can get good enough at them to not have to use save states at all if I really drill myself on them, and as silly as it seems to care about that, I care about everything, so.

Now. That breakthrough I promised you I’d come back to. So, I was playing the second to last Special Stage, and there’s this part where you basically need to thread a needle between two clusters of bombs while also collecting some rings... and it feels basically impossible when you factor in that you also need to do this while keeping A.I.-me from getting hit.

I had two epiphanies/major mental shifts during this tiny part of the game. One is I realized, “Oh, heck. This is, on a small scale, what it feels like to be Sonic. He not only has to account for what he’s doing, he has to account for what I’m doing behind him. That’s so difficult!” And that was pretty trippy all on its own. And I got to the point where instead of saying, “Damn it, Tails!” (deeply ironic coming from me, I know) when A.I.-me hit a bomb, I was saying, “Sorry, Tails!”

But that wasn’t all.

The second shift was harder, and is something that is going to take a lot of practice to fully realize. But it was also incredibly emotionally rewarding. So, I finally figured out how to get past that one part, and what I figured out kind of blew my mind. I kept thinking, “How can I grab those rings and keep A.I.-Tails from hitting the bombs.” And that’s when it clicked.

I didn’t need to somehow grab the rings and swing out of the way fast enough for A.I.-me to not hit the bombs! I needed to let A.I.-me grab the rings for me! And I basically laughed out loud with joy when I realized that. Now. I’m not nearly good enough at these Special Stages yet to consistently implement this, but that’s what I’ve been missing all this time (and I think a lot of other people who’ve played Sonic 2 have missed). A.I.-Tails isn’t an obstacle, he’s an asset! You just need to put him in a position to succeed! And realizing that at some point Sonic had the exact same realization about me on a larger scale was just trippy in the best possible way.

Fuck, I love him.

Fuck, I love this game.

Aquatic Ruin Zone (2/10)

I gotta be honest, I’ve kinda always seen this as a nothing zone. It’s pretty! The colors are very vibrant, and the background is especially striking. It’s still just kind of a worse/more boring Marble Garden Zone but with water, though. And I wasn’t super impressed by it even before Sonic 3 came out. This one has “filler zone” written all over it.

I think what really hampers this is it tried to be distinct but kinda missed, imo? I don’t think any of the gimmicks (those stupid finger bouncer things, the rising or crumbling columns) aside from the arrow-launchers really added much, and the arrows are improved upon quite a bit in Sonic 3.

I guess one part I do appreciate is that while this is the token underwater level of the game, it’s actually super easy to avoid the underwater stuff altogether??? I remember not being able to my first few playthroughs, but now I would pretty much have to intentionally end up underwater. Which... I believe we have covered my position on my hedgehog being underwater quite thoroughly.

But, yeah. On the whole, I’m just not that impressed by this zone. And it doesn’t give me especially strong feels? Like. I’m sure I’ve explored places like this with Sonic, but I think there are other renditions of this kind of location that really nail it a lot better. Honestly, I feel kinda dirty talking negative about a Sonic 2 zone, but I think this zone is the weakest one in Sonic 2 by a pretty comfortable margin, so there is that.

The boss is extremely easy to beat even before you know the trick, but if you know the trick he’s a joke. If you jump onto the totem poles while they’re raising out of the ground you can just stay on top without much trouble and hit him with impunity. Just make sure you bounce back onto the totem and don’t get hit by the hammer. But yeah, even if you beat him the way you’re “supposed” to it’s pretty easy. Heck, even Sonic 4 dunked on this boss pretty effectively. That’s just sad.

And like, even with bosses that aren’t very rewarding in a gameplay sense, in Sonic 2 I can largely say “at least it looked cool!” but... not so much with this one? Mostly because of the cultural appropriation. So, yeah. I guess we should talk about that now.

This is not the franchise’s first brush with cultural appropriation (there’s background totem poles in Green Hill Zone, for instance) but it’s the first extremely noticeable one. Other expansive examples include Egyptian pyramid-like levels (famously in Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure 2) and an Ancient Egypt setting in the time travel arc of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s also plenty of appropriation from indigenous peoples and other cultures all over the comics.

So, just to be super clear, there is an extremely obvious answer to this in our world: these things are wrong and should be called out as such. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the game/comic/show, but it is something I think anyone who enjoys this franchise needs to be aware of and needs to actively fight to keep from happening again.

If you don’t care about my messy, personal otherkin stuff, that’s actually where you can stop reading. But considering like three people are reading this, you’ll probably keep reading. So. Yeah.

The complicating factor (which does not impact how I approach this stuff w/r/t media criticism and fandom) is that I think Mobius is a real place and that I’m from there. And for all I know some of this stuff could really exist there. But even if that’s the case, these things aren’t 1-to-1. And in the end, these artists are drawing on their personal experiences to tell a story, and I think that’s the only level on which it really makes sense to address this stuff in the context of how it’s likely to affect people in the here and now. The only reason I’m even talking about this complicating factor is that I’ve been being really personal in these basically diary entries about the games and how they’re helping me find myself, so it feels kinda weird to leave something like this out.

For any fellow otherkin reading this... I’m fairly new in the community, so I don’t feel especially equipped to tackle big questions like “what to do when your source material gets racist”/etc, but I do think this is a conversation that needs to happen if it hasn’t already. (And if it has, please point me to it.) And I can see a lot of pitfalls (cancelling people for having “problematic” kintypes, or swinging too far in the other direction and just ignoring real serious problems in your source text because it’s your source text), and I’d really like to see some community-generated solutions to this stuff.

... anyway, yeah. That’s a lot more than I expected to have to write about Aquatic Ruin Zone. (Ok, a lot of it was peripheral to Aquatic Ruin Zone, but still.)

Casino Night Zone (2/10)

Wellp, this is the first one of these! Robotnik really seems to have a thing for casinos. That’s... kinda all I got here.

I remember not really loving this zone as a kid, probably owing to the fact that it’s drastically different than the others? Now I actually find that an asset. You need an oddball one every now and then!

It’s pretty hard to die on this zone, so there is that. Like, there are a few places you can get crushed if you’re not careful but it’s still one of the least dangerous zones in the game honestly.

Oh I keep forgetting to say how many lives I have. I think I have like 15 at this point? I had 13 after Chemical Plant. Don’t think I gained any on Aquatic Ruin Zone, and think I picked up two here.

The boss of this one used to give me fits until I figured out that you’re better off spindashing up the side and hitting him that way rather than using the flippers. You have way more control that way! But honestly, the boss doesn’t do much for me conceptually. Like, I’m glad it uses the theme of the zone and all, but it’s just not my favorite kind of boss. Also, I had Super Sonic for him this time, so that like... totally trivialized him, obviously.

But, yeah! I don’t have much to say about this one, I’m kinda stalling at this point! It’s actually a pretty good zone, good concept, well-executed. I just don’t have a lot to add! Except that it’s decently likely that this Zone may have fed pretty directly into the development of Sonic Spinball! And I’m actually a pretty big fan of Sonic Spinball, so yeah. Glad that’s a thing I guess!

Hill Top Zone (2/10)

I’ve always liked this zone! I mean, it has a lot of aesthetic similarities with Emerald Hill Zone but it’s blue! So, yeah. Obviously I have some superficial reasons for digging it.

I really like the mountain theme here, and I really like the way it leads into the next zone being a cave zone! It just makes a lot of sense. And there’s so many cute little creative features to really emphasize that this is a mountain-based zone! The lava pits and chair lifts and whatnot.

I can also pretty easily see exploring this kind of location with Sonic. It’s gorgeous! And obviously being this close to the sky appeals to me specifically for a lot of reasons.

The boss for this one is pretty good! He fits with the theme of the level, as there are lava pits you can fall into and he’s in a kind of lava submarine that throws fire at you. It’s a really neat concept! He’s pretty easy to beat, especially if you have Super Sonic, but you can destroy him before he submerges for the first time even without Super Sonic, so yeah. Not hard, but still cool!

Mystic Cave Zone

Plenty of good stuff going on in this zone!! As far as my stuff goes, it’s just another distinct setting that it would make sense for Sonic and I to explore (especially if Robotnik’s trail led through it), and (especially after the literal highs of Hill Top Zone) I would probably feel pretty confined due to not being able to see the sky, but yeah.

Like basically every zone in the 16-bit Sonic games, this one is gorgeous. One thing that really does ring true to me whenever there’s a natural setting depicted in these zones is that they really do bring a lot of Mobius’s natural beauty up front, and seeing that makes me feel so happy but also pretty damn homesick.

Gameplay wise, this is a pretty good zone! The obstacles and other features included make a lot of sense for the setting, and so do the Badniks you encounter. I also like the boss, though he’s pretty easy if you have Super Sonic. But yeah, the Egg-O-Matic with two drills attached makes a lot of sense for a cave setting. So yeah, overall this zone is pretty great!

Oil Ocean Zone

So this is kind of uncomfortable. But yeah. An oil zone with music that’s clearly supposed to be evocative of Middle Eastern cultures is... yeah. I talked about racism in these games at length in my Aquatic Ruins Zone writeup, so I won’t belabor the point too much. But yeah. Not great.

Now, of course Robuttnik would have an oil refinery that dumps oil into the ocean. I have no issue there. It’s only the framing that’s fucked. (And, y’know, worth noting that this game came out in 1992, not long after the first Gulf War.) But like... I still get some definite kinfeels here because like... I can imagine fighting my way through a grimy oil refinery with Sonic, being horrified at the senseless acts of environmental destruction being committed by that asshole Robotnik.

The frustrating thing is, this is actually a pretty great zone otherwise. The vibrant color scheme works really well here. The two Badniks you encounter in this stage are ocean-themed, and the level design has some really cool features like oil slides and I think the first appearance? of the cannons that shoot you back and forth to carry you to different parts of the level. The music is also really catchy even though, y’know. The obvious problems.

I’ve never really liked the boss for this one? It’s just kinda... overly complicated with no real unifying theme? It’s fine in terms of gameplay, there’s just not really anything holding it all together.

This zone is also recreated in Sonic Mania, which... is its own kind of frustrating. Like, it’s a really great, really distinct zone if you separate it from the big, glaring problem... but it feels really not okay to just straight up ignore the big, glaring problem.

Metropolis Zone (2/11)

This is where things Get Real. You’ve chased Robotnik all the way to his base. Like Scrap Brain Zone before it, Metropolis Zone is a vast industrial nightmare, churning out Badniks and weapons and all other manner of vile things. Unquestionably this is where our animal friends are being enslaved by Robotnik, trapped in their horrifying metal prisons.

I do not like it here.

It takes quite a bit of mental and emotional fortitude on our parts to keep fighting our way through this land of nightmares. And fittingly, this is one of the toughest zones of the game. The obstacles are harder, the margins for error smaller. In addition to all kinds of nasty traps and just generally difficult layouts, this zone features arguably the hardest Badniks of the game in the form of the Shellcracker (a crab-like robot with an extending claw with a very long reach) and Slicers (a mantis-like robot that throws spinning blades that are very difficult to avoid). Asterons (the starfish-like explodey boys) can also be tricky for newer players but once you know how to avoid them really aren’t that bad. And all of these are placed at the most awkward possible locations to make them genuinely challenging to get past without taking damage.

And to top it off, if you don’t have Super Sonic for the boss (which you’re unlikely to given the level layout unless you somehow manage to have 50 rings right when you get to the boss) it’s easily the most difficult boss of the game outside of the final boss. I actually died to him thrice, which is frustrating because I rarely die in these games. But this is kinda awesome because it makes beating him feel like a genuine victory. (Obviously if you have a second player to play Tails you can just totally trivialize this boss. But y’know.)

This is without a doubt one of the best zones of the game and one of the best zones of any Sonic game. It’s so grueling, but in a fun way? And that’s just perfect for this stage of the game.

Sky Chase Zone (2/11)

I mean. Yeah. I don’t even know if I need to say anything here? It’s a zone where I fly Sonic around while he destroys Badniks and we chase down Robotnik’s escape airship. Yes, I said escape airship. Look, he’s ridiculous. Yeah, I love this zone. Yeah, it gives me tons of kinfeels. What else even is there to say here?

The Badniks are very cool-looking, fitting with the zone’s theme, and deployed to be hard without being too hard. And the zone looks great. I especially love the cumulonimbus (or actually, they might just be towering cumulus) clouds you see in the background sometimes.

Actually, that reminds me. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in real life was a storm cloud while I was in a plane. It was so huge, it made me feel insignificant. And we ended up having to fly really close to it. I don’t know. I’ve always loved storm clouds, but actually getting to see one that close was like... the closest I’ll ever come to knowing what it would really feel like to see a kaiju.

Anyway. Yeah. I love this zone. Goodbye.

Wing Fortress Zone (2/11)

This zone totally rules!! It’s tough, but not too tough. It has a ton of new, pretty impressive features! And it really does feel like you’re fighting your way through Robotnik’s massive airship. It’s very distinct, which is great! And it’s another example of storytelling through level design, something Sonic 2 really advanced!

I’m not gonna lie, I get pretty emotional over the tornado getting shot down at the beginning of this zone. Sonic having to go on without me, who has been fighting by his side for this entire story, is heart-wrenching! And it’s a very Shit’s Getting Real kinda moment.

The boss for this one is pretty tough if you don’t have Super Sonic, but the good news is it’s pretty easy to have Super Sonic for it! And Super Sonic just totally trivializes it.

After you dispatch the boss, you don’t quite catch up with Robotnik’s escape spaceship (yeah, he has an escape spaceship), and all appears lost. Until... I reenter the scene flying a repaired Tornado!! Upgraded with a rocket engine beneath that helps us barely catch up with Robotnik’s rocket so Sonic can jump onto it and hold on for dear life until it docks with the Death Egg.

Death Egg Zone (2/11)

GUESS WHO HAS TWO TAILS AND BEAT THE NOTORIOUSLY DIFFICULT SONIC 2 FINAL BOSS IN ONE TRY!!!!!!

So, yeah. This is... probably pretty easily the best final zone/boss of a Sonic game ever? I’m of course open to the possibility that I’ll change my mind as I play through more of them, but yeah. I don’t know. This one is going to be hard to beat.

Mecha Sonic AND that massive Eggman robot? Just... yeah. It’s pretty unfair. And the music. and the setting. And, yeah. It’s just a beyond incredible way to end a game.

So, yeah. Both of these bosses are pretty tough, and you get no rings. It’s a really stressful zone. I literally threw my arms up in the air in victory when I beat the final boss in one try! I had never done that before and I’m not sure I’ll be able to easily replicate the feat anytime soon.

As far as kinfeels... I mean, yeah. It’s the Death Egg. I feel exactly the way I should feel about it. No, I don’t know if there’s ever been such a thing in my Mobius, but like... it’s not hard to imagine how I would feel if there were.

Ending

So, yeah. You destroy the final boss which makes the Death Egg blow up for some reason (shrug), and then you’re just kinda falling from space. There’s a brief semi-animated scene of me looking up and seeing Sonic falling. And then I rush up to meet him in the Tornado.

If you don’t have all the Chaos Emeralds, I rescue him. If you do, he goes Super right when I meet him and flies alongside me. Either way, a 16-bit version of a literal love song plays over a scene where I’m rushing up to my hero’s rescue and we’re joyously reunited after literally saving the world together.

The Greatest. Love. Story. Ever. Told.

Couples Depicted in this Game
1. Sonic/Tails (S/T-Rank)

Zones
1. Death Egg Zone (S-Rank)
2. Emerald Hill Zone (S-Rank)
3. Chemical Plant Zone (S-Rank)
4. Metropolis Zone (S-Rank)
5. Wing Fortress Zone (S-Rank)
6. Sky Chase Zone (A-Rank)
7. Mystic Cave Zone (B-Rank)
8. Oil Ocean Zone (B-Rank)
9. Hill Top Zone (B-Rank)
10. Casino Night Zone (B-Rank)
11. Aquatic Ruin Zone (C-Rank)

Bosses
1. Death Egg Robot (S-Rank)
2. Mecha Sonic (S-Rank)
3. Flying Eggman (A-Rank)
4. Drill Eggman (S-Rank)
5. Water Eggman (A-Rank)
6. Drill Eggman II (A-Rank)
7. Submarine Eggman (A-Rank)
8. Barrier Eggman (B-Rank)
9. Tonkachi Eggman (C-Rank)
10. Submarine Eggman II (C-Rank)
11. Catcher Eggman (C-Rank)

Soundtrack
1. Final Boss (S-Rank)
2. Ending Theme (Sweet Dreams) (S-Rank)
3. Chemical Plant Zone (S-Rank)
4. Emerald Hill Zone (S-Rank)
5. Boss (S-Rank)
6. Metropolis Zone (A-Rank)
7. Wing Fortress Zone (A-Rank)
8. Credits (A-Rank)
9. Death Egg Zone (B-Rank)
10. Sky Chase Zone (B-Rank)
11. Mystic Cave Zone 2-player (B-Rank)
12. Casino Night Zone 2-player (B-Rank)
13. Casino Night Zone (B-Rank)
14. Special Stage (B-Rank)
15. Emerald Hill Zone 2-player (B-Rank)
16. Hill Top Zone (B-Rank)
17. Mystic Cave Zone (B-Rank)
18. Oil Ocean Zone (B-Rank)
19. Aquatic Ruin Zone (B-Rank)
20. (unused) Hidden Palace Zone (C-Rank)

HUH. TURNS OUT IF YOU ACTUALLY LOOK UP HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME IT’S A LOT MORE FUN. WHO WOULDA THUNK IT.

Like, okay. It’s understandable that the first time I played this (going in thinking, “Oh, sweet, a classic Sonic game I haven’t played!!”) I had a bad time. Like. Sonic games are usually shockingly brilliant at teaching you how to play them? And Sonic CD kinda just... doesn’t do that at all? I guess if I had taken the time to look at the instruction manual and figure out how the time travel mechanic works instead of just being like “huh, that’s a confusing thing that I can’t figure out intuitively what to do with it, oh well!” like I did the first time, it mighta helped. But, yeah! I didn’t do that! So I decided that Sonic CD was just The Only Bad One.

Now, it’s a whole new ballgame! I don’t know where I’m gonna land on this thing as of yet, just to be clear. But if my experience playing the first zone is any indication, there’s a decent chance I’m gonna have a good time.

Before we get to that, though. Let me just also say that one thing my feelings didn’t change about was that opening cinematic. That one was love at first sight, and yeah. I mean. The whole point of it is basically, “Sonic is so cool oh my gosh look how cool he is!” So. Kinda hard to imagine not getting my buy-in on that one.

Palmtree Panic Zone (2/13)

Okay technically this is “Palmtree Panic Round,” and the acts are called zones, because Sonic CD is weird!! But I get stubborn about dumb shit sometimes and I’ve decided to make this one of those things, so, we’re gonna call them zones anyway! Deal with it. (I don’t know who I’m telling to deal with it. The game I guess? You probably don’t care XD)

So, yeah! I played through Act 1 once without reading up on how time travel actually works, and it turns out when you finish this zone in the present right before you get to the goal plate Amy gloms onto you and you have to escape to finish the act. Yikes! I also saw the bad future in that first playthrough and the whole zone was basically roboticized (not actually the right term for this but you get the idea) and polluted, so that sucked!

Anyway, at this point I’m like, “Y’know what? I bet this whole time travel thing is important. I’m gonna read up on it and start over.” And WOW was that ever a great idea!! This time around I got good futures for both Acts 1 & 2, and picked up a time stone in a Special Stage after Act 1. I also collected 3 extra lives in Act 1 and 2 in Act 2, ending the zone with a total of 8! So that kinda ruled.

So, yeah! I’m understanding now that the gameplay in this one is really a lot more interested in exploring the zones fully! Or at the very least going back to the past to destroy the robot transporter, unlocking the good future! And you don’t have to go forward to the future once you do so, but it’s super helpful because you can run around the zone with no Badniks whatsoever, collecting rings and extra lives (I got over 200 rings in Act 1!). So, yeah. It seems like a good idea! And also something I totally missed when I was trying to play this like a usual Sonic game, where yeah getting plenty of rings and whatnot is great and all, but it’s still a very linear experience where you’re just trying to get to the goal relatively fast.

Palmtree Panic is your usual Green Hill-esque starting level, but there’s a lot going on here that makes it super unique! Probably due to greater capabilities of the Sega CD, the layout of the zone is way more complex. But yeah, like these opening zones pretty much always are, it’s just totally gorgeous! It feels like a pretty great introduction to the game.

The boss here is super easy. I remember not really finding any of the bosses in this game particularly challenging, but yeah. It’s basically an AT-ST-looking bipedal mech with bumpers for arms. These arms move very fast and can knock you back when you try to hit the machine, but it doesn’t really do a lot offensively and it’s pretty easy to hit it with some experimentation. And it only takes three hits--one for each of its arms, and then another when it’s unprotected. So, yeah. Super easy!

All in all, this is a pretty darn good zone. I’m looking forward to reevaluating the others!

Collision Chaos Zone (2/13)

I’m worried that these entries for Sonic CD zones are gonna start sounding kinda samey since I just don’t have much history with this game and I’m really only just learning how to play it properly? Um this one is kinda a pink forest (the wiki entry says “possibly psychedelic” which is neat I guess!) with a bunch of pinball mechanics.

Oh, I guess the fact that the level is hella pink themed is kinda appropriate since the beginning of Act 1 is where Amy gets kidnapped. She runs after Sonic all fangirly, then Metal bashes out of a wall and nabs her. It’s actually rather well-animated.

And, uh. Embarrassingly, I... got a little jealous. So. Yeah. Not that I WANT to be kidnapped or anything! Especially not by Metal. But like. If I’m not gonna be a playable character in a game and someone is gonna get kidnapped to provide motivation for Sonic anyway ¯\(ツ)/¯

Uh. Yeah. I’ll stop embarrassing myself now. The boss for this one is hella easy. I think I remember that being a theme in this game. But yeah, you’re in a pinball machine and Robotnik kinda lazily lobs bombs at you while you use the flippers to hit him a few times. It’s not hard. And it’s not that fun to look at, either. While the first boss was also super easy at least it was interesting to look at. Shrug!

Anyway, I finished with 10 lives, and unfortunately failed to get a time stone after either act. These UFO special stages take some getting used to! But I’ll get there. I think. Honestly as long as I keep getting good futures on every act (and I have so far, btw) apparently that unlocks the good ending anyway, so yeah! But I do wanna collect all the stones anyway, because why not?

Tidal Tempest Zone (2/13)

... it’s an underwater level. You already know what I’m feeling, I don’t need to say it.

I got stuck on the second act for an embarrassingly long time because the only way to get to the past is by using a past time warp sign that’s in a hidden room next to a pair of sideways springboards pointed at each other, and I got hyperfocused on trying to find my way back to those springboards after getting a red herring past sign later in the act. Blarg.

It’s still kinda hard to compare this to other 2D Sonic levels because it’s like apples and oranges. But yeah. Judging Sonic CD by its own standards, all of the zones have been pretty good so far I guess? I’m finding I don’t actually have a lot else to say with this game, probably just the lack of familiarity.

Oh, speaking of broken records, the boss was hella easy again but this one was at least kinda fun conceptually? You chase the Egg-O-Matic through an underwater labyrinth, hit it a few times, and eventually catch up and fight the Egg-O-Matic while it’s surrounded by air bubbles that you breathe instead of hitting him. And he shoots projectiles at you. But yeah, once you get an opening in the air bubbles, it takes literally one hit to defeat. Shrug.

Quartz Quadrant (2/13)

Yeah, I mean. I guess what I’m starting to run into here is a lot of these zones just kinda blur together. I’m glad I know how to play the game more now, but Sonic CD is still just very... Sonic CD. Like, it’s hard to relate anything in here to any of the other 2D games because this game is just very... itself. All I really feel like after finishing a Sonic CD Zone is, “Yeah, that’s a Sonic CD Zone.” So While I like this game a lot more than I did in the past, it still just doesn’t really hit me in the places Sonic games often do. It’s not a bad game and I’m having fun playing it, but it’s just hard to get much of substance out of it right now. At least for me.

The boss for this one was kinda interesting conceptually, finally! Robotnik is in this seemingly indestructible booth and has a bomb launcher that drops bombs at you while you run on a conveyor belt with spikes behind you. You just keep avoiding the bombs while the conveyor belt wears down Robotnik’s booth from below. I really liked this boss because it seemed like a really realistic trap Robotnik would set for Sonic, and a very believable way to escape it! So, yeah. Hard to say for sure given how weird these bosses have been, but probably my favorite boss of the game so far? Maybe.

Wacky Workbench Zone (2/14)

Okay this one is just bad.

Look, I've been very intentionally trying to play this game with an open mind but this one actually almost broke me. It's just so poorly designed and the whole gimmick where touching the ground bounces you up and all of it is just so hecking dumb.

I'm at least gratified that as I've looked around online I've found nigh universal hate for this zone. I thought maybe it was a Me problem, because I pretty much always assume things are a Me problem, but nope.

The boss for this one is Eggman in a kinda cool rocket-looking thing, but the gameplay is just as boring as the other bosses have been so far. Shrug.

Stardust Speedway Zone (2/16)

So if you’ve heard of one Sonic CD zone it’s probably this one. And honestly that’s mostly because of the boss fight against Metal. The zone itself is... eh. Honestly the longer I spent with this game, the more I kinda got bored with the relatively unchallenging, non-linear zones. Find past signpost. Find somewhere you can run uninterrupted. Time travel to past. Find robot generator. Destroy. Repeat for Act 2. Fight ridiculously easy boss. Rinse. Repeat.

Honestly? Despite being the flagship zone of the game, there is really nothing special about Stardust Speedway. (Again, until you get to the boss.) The background does look gorgeous, so there is that. But the zone itself is honestly kinda boring. It’s just a bunch of I guess highways? That look basically like the vines you see in like Mushroom Hill or whatever. Y’know. Zones that usually have a lot more besides just that.

The fight with Metal is even a little underwhelming considering that it’s just a race, but like I’m not gonna be a total downer here. It’s still pretty dang cool. One of the highlights of the game, for sure.

Metallic Madness Zone (2/16)

Okay, honestly? This one kinda rules.

Like. Yeah, at a base level you’re still following that time travel/destroy thing/repeat pattern that I’m super bored of at this point. But the zone itself is an upgraded Scrap Brain Zone. And it’s genuinely challenging! I timed out a couple times on Act 2!

This one didn’t hit me as hard in the kinfeels department as its predecessors, mostly because I was too caught up in being relieved that this game actually has good zones sometimes!!

Oh, but don’t get me wrong. There’s still disappointment to be had. The final boss, while somewhat difficult to get to, is boring personified. It’s just Robotnik in an Egg-O-Matic-ish vehicle with four blades spinning around him. And it only takes four hits to destroy!

Still, on the whole, this is pretty easily the best zone in the game. Honestly, if you took this zone and gave it the previous zone’s boss fight, it would stand comfortably with a lot of the better zones in these games, but alas.

Ending

I mean, we get another fully animated cutscene, which rules! More Amy than I woulda liked, but y’know. And to be clear, Ames is cool in other contexts, just... please stay away from my hedgehog? I mean, not away-away, unless he wants that, but like. Stop bein’ a creeper!

When I sit here and try to compose final thoughts about this game I just... don’t have a lot. I started this playthrough with a lot more optimism than I’ve felt about this game in a long time, and I just... didn’t really end up thinking much of it. And I’m pretty disappointed about that. Especially considering it had way more system resources available to it than any other Sonic game of its era and it really just feels like it wasted them.

Like, don’t get me wrong. I had a much better experience playing it this time than I did the first time. I’m not saying it’s worthless trash or anything. It just doesn’t click with the rest of the games, and I don’t think that’s just because I didn’t play it growing up. I think it’s because there was parallel development going on with this and Sonic 2, and Sonic 2 took the franchise in better directions.

And I know I don’t need to connect with every piece of Sonic media on an intimate level for it to be worthwhile, but I just... remember how excited I was when it came out on PC in 2011 and I thought, “Finally! I can play a classic Sonic game I haven’t played before!” And the gap between what I thought that meant and what it ended up meaning is just always going to be disappointing, and I think I need to accept that that’s okay, and that I’m allowed to feel that way.

As is traditional, let’s rank some stuff! A quick note on that first, though. THERE WERE ALMOST SIXTY TRACKS OF SOUNDTRACK FOR ME TO RANK FOR THIS ONE! THAT IS A LOT! It took forever, and like, at the end of re-listening to the entire soundtrack for the third time to double check my order, I decided that I really don’t need to be super accurate about how I rank the C-Rank and D-Rank stuff? Like, I’m sorry, at the end of the day who actually cares whether a song is my 51st or 52nd favorite song on the Sonic CD soundtrack? I already spent longer on this than any reasonable person would. So, yeah. Just keep that in mind I guess!

Zones
1. Metallic Madness Zone (B-Tier)
2. Palmtree Panic Zone (C-Tier)
3. Collision Chaos Zone (C-Tier)
4. Tidal Tempest Zone (C-Tier)
5. Stardust Speedway Zone (C-Tier)
6. Quartz Quadrant Zone (C-Tier)
7. Wacky Workbench Zone (D-Tier)

Bosses
1. Metal Sonic (S-Tier)
2. Quartz Crystal Zone (C-Tier)
3. Tidal Tempest Zone (C-Tier)
4. Metallic Madness Zone (C-Tier)
5. EGG-HVC-001 (C-Tier)
6. Collision Chaos Zone (D-Tier)
7. Wacky Workbench Zone (D-Tier)

Soundtrack
1. Sonic Boom (Theme), USA (A-Rank)
2. Sonic Boom (Ending), USA (A-Rank)
3. Quartz Quadrant Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
4. Stardust Speedway Zone Present, USA (A-Rank)
5. Quartz Quadrant Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
6. Palmtree Panic Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
7. Metallic Madness Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
8. Stardust Speedway Zone Bad Future, USA (A-Rank)
9. Metallic Madness Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
10. Palmtree Panic Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
11. Metallic Madness Zone Past (A-Rank)
12. Final Fever, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
13. Tidal Tempest Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
14. Collision Chaos Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
15. Tidal Tempest Zone Present, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
16. Boss, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
17. Metallic Madness Zone Bad Future, USA (B-Rank)
18. Tidal Tempest Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
19. Palmtree Panic Zone Present, USA (B-Rank)
20. Palmtree Panic Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
21. Cosmic Eternity - Believe in Yourself, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
22. You Can Do Anything, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
23. Metallic Madness Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
24. Palmtree Panic Zone Good Future, Sonic CD USA (B-Rank)
25. Palmtree Panic Zone Past (B-Rank)
26. Stardust Speedway Good Future, USA (B-Rank)
27. Metallic Madness Zone Good Future, USA (B-Rank)
28. Wacky Workbench Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
29. Quartz Quadrant Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
30. Special Stage, USA (B-Rank)
31. Final Fever, USA (B-Rank)
32. Boss!!, USA (B-Rank)
33. Stardust Speedway Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
34. Special Stage, JP/PAL (C-Tier)
35. Palmtree Panic Zone Bad Future, USA (C-Rank)
36. Wacky Workbench Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
37. Metallic Madness Zone Present, USA (C-Rank)
38. Stardust Speedway Zone Present, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
39. Stardust Speedway Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
40. Tidal Tempest Zone Bad Future, USA (C-Rank)
41. Wacky Workbench Zone Present, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
42. Collision Chaos Zone Good Future, USA (C-Rank)
43. Stardust Speedway Zone Past (C-Rank)
44. Collision Chaos Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
45. Wacky Workbench Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)
46. Wacky Workbench Zone Bad Future, USA (D-Rank)
47. Wacky Workbench Zone Good Future, USA (D-Rank)
48. Quartz Quadrant Zone Good Future, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
49. Quartz Quadrant Zone Bad Future, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
50. Quartz Quadrant Zone Past (D-Rank)
51. Tidal Tempest Zone Past (D-Rank)
52. Collision Chaos Zone Present, JP/PAL (D-Rank)
53. Tidal Tempest Zone Good Future, USA (D-Rank)
54. Tidal Tempest Zone Present, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
55. Wacky Workbench Zone Past (D-Rank)
56. Collision Chaos Zone Bad Future, USA (D-Rank)
57. Collision Chaos Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)
58. Collision Chaos Zone Past (D-Rank)
59.Quartz Quadrant Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)

So, yeah. This one’s pretty difficult to emulate. I coulda jumped through a lot of hoops to do so, and then ended up with a game that’s very difficult to control the way you’re supposed to control it because I don’t have a trackball, and I just don’t think it’s worth the effort? I heard there was some vague gesturing by Sega that they might be open to doing a Sega Ages release of this, and that would be pretty terrific, but in the meantime I decided to just watch a longplay of it. Consequently I don’t think it makes any sense for me to try to rate the zones etc, so I won’t.

Honestly without the gimmick of playing with a trackball it doesn’t look like there’s that much here? It’s cool seeing what our boy looks like in an arcade game given that arcade cabinets were capable of a lot more than consoles at the time. It’s also cool seeing Mighty and Ray’s first appearance. But it just kinda doesn’t seem like there’s a lot to the game?

The opening cutscene, with Sonic, Ray, and Mighty (or whatever combination thereof you’re playing as) getting captured is pretty neat, and breaking out of prison to start the game is a pretty good setup. So I will say that.

The levels are just extremely short, though. They do technically have the first appearance of a few popular series themes like ice levels and desert levels, so that’s something, but for the most part they’re alright-looking but they’re nothing special? Especially Eggman’s Tower which is inexplicably had brick walls and stone floors, not exactly his style. And the one truly unique-sounding setting here, Trap Tower, is extremely one-note. I was excited for a dungeon of traps, but it turns out it’s just this metal roller chasing you the whole time. Yawn. The one exception imo is Desert Dodge, that one looks pretty rad. Its obstacles include cacti, quicksand, sinkholes, and frigging dust devils??? So that’s pretty cool.

All in all, I really don’t feel like I’m missing out on too much here? It would be cool to play this as a curiosity I guess, but I just don’t think it has much impact on the main series.

I played this one a lot when I was younger. I think I just appreciated that it was still a Sonic game but it was a change of pace! It was also a lot shorter and felt a little less “serious” so it was a good game to play more casually. For instance, I beat this game in one sitting this morning without it making much of a dent in my day.

I don’t think it really makes sense for me to go through this one in depth like I do most of the standard games given that you’re effectively just doing one thing (using pinball mechanics to collect way more Chaos Emeralds than there have ever been before or since and then fighting bosses, also with pinball mechanics) over and over. So let’s just talk about it all briefly.

The game opens with me and Sonic flying towards a scary-looking mountain with a giant Robotnik face on it in our plane, the Tornado. Robotnik’s defenses open fire on us, and I manage to bank out of the way of the first volley but the second catches the tornado in the wing, knocking Sonic down to the water below. Oh, no!

According to the instruction book some of Sonic’s animal friends save him, and he emerges wet but no worse for the wear in the first zone, Toxic Caves. Toxic Caves is a pretty great opening level, and a unique setting! It makes story sense for his infiltration of Robotnik’s fortress to start in a sewer level. And this level does what any good first level of a Sonic game does: teaches you how to play the game. Its boss is a... kind of weird giant scorpion thing with Robotnik’s face. It’s a bit unnerving, but easy to beat.

If Sonic is still wet from falling in the ocean (or lake or whatever it is) and making his way through the toxic sewers, he’s sure to dry off in Lava Powerhouse. So, yeah, Robotnik’s base is on a volcano, so a geo-thermal powerplant makes perfect sense as the next progression after the initial infiltration through the sewers. The boss for this one is kinda nightmare fuel, and I gotta say the first two bosses make way less story sense than the second two. Like, I can accept the scorpion bot even if it doesn’t 100% seem like Robotnik’s style. I kinda don’t know why he just has a boiler with giant Robotnik heads floating around in it lying around. Not sure what practical purpose that one’s supposed to serve apart from being creepy af.

As Sonic gets deeper into Robotnik’s base he next finds himself in The Machine. This one has your usual “Robotnik’s base” sorta aesthetic, everything is metal and mechanized. This zone is pretty easy but its aesthetics rule. And releasing all the animals trapped in the cells in the animal prison is very cathartic. And it has easily the best boss of the game imo. And speaking of catharsis, literally blowing up a new, more powerful roboticizer certainly fits the bill.

And lastly you have The Showdown, which is honestly kinda a letdown imo? Like, it’s not bad, I wouldn’t call anything in this game bad, I just don’t think it integrates its theme as effectively as the other levels. A lot of the mechanics and obstacles in it feel pretty arbitrary. Its aesthetics totally work, though! Like the fact that you can just look down and see craters full of lava that you need to avoid falling into. And the final boss is pretty good, too! It’s thematically appropriate, as Robotnik is preparing to try to escape in his spaceship, and it also feels appropriately difficult as a final boss.

The bonus stages in this one aren’t as essential as they usually are in terms of what they reward you with, but given that most of them allow you to free me (and some Archie characters, randomly), they’re actually crucial! Don’t leave your two-tailed foxes in (non-consensual) captivity!!

Oh yeah, and the ending is Robuttnik and Sonic falling from the sky after Sonic destroys the spaceship, and I swoop in on the Tornado to rescue Sonic!! Yay!!! Always a good way to end a Sonic game imo.

So, yeah! My understanding is a lot of people complain about this one, and I get it. It is the result of Sega rushing to have a game out for the holiday season when they realized they weren’t gonna have Sonic 3 in time. But I’ve always been a fan of this game, and still am. It’s a nice little diversion! And it’s something different.

Zones
Toxic Caves (B-Rank)
The Machine (B-Rank)
The Showdown (C-Rank)
Lava Powerhouse (C-Rank)

Bosses
Veg-O-Machine (A-Rank)
Robotnik's Ship (C-Rank)
Scorpius (C-Rank)
Robo-Boiler (C-Rank)

Soundtrack
Boss Battle (A-Rank)
Toxic Caves (B-Rank)
The Machine (B-Rank)
Special Stage (B-Rank)
Lava Powerhouse (B-Rank)
The Showdown (B-Rank)
Credits (D-Rank)